


Regression

by Miah_Arthur



Series: Growing Up [3]
Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: A Bit of Fluff, Angst, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Relationship(s), Trouble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 04:35:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4377410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miah_Arthur/pseuds/Miah_Arthur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the beginning it was almost funny. Audrey figured the photo of Duke clutching the teddy bear should be worth free coffee-the good stuff-at least once a week. If only it hadn't brought up the past quite so viscerally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sarah_JAG (msdonnatemplenoble)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/msdonnatemplenoble/gifts).



 

#  ****

REGRESSION

 

### 

CHAPTER ONE

 

Duke kept a carefully casual eye on the crowd as he polished glasses behind the bar. Some of these guys were known to get rowdy on the best of days, but the early onset of winter weather had kept the fishing boats grounded for several weeks and most of them were strung tight with the stress of no income, the holidays, and nothing productive to do. The Patriots were kicking the Bills' asses to clinch the AFC title, and the excitement of their team winning might be all the excuse the crowd needed to turn into a mob ready to turn cars over and set fires. He was keeping his baseball bat handy just in case. 

A thin, pale guy that Duke didn't recognize sidled up to the counter and ordered a burger and soda. Duke passed the food order along to the kitchen, and set the soda in front of the guy. The day after Christmas wasn't exactly tourist season, and most tourists didn't like to be out after dark when the temperatures would really start to drop.

"First time in Haven?"

The man glanced up and then stared at Duke in surprise. "Not entirely." The crowd around the television shouted over Tom Brady throwing another touchdown pass, nearly drowning the words out.

Something about this guy was unsettling, although Duke couldn't pin down what exactly. He waited for the noise to settle before he spoke again. "Oh yeah, so you've _sort of_ been here before, then?"

The guy hadn't stopped staring at Duke. "I know you."

"Excuse me?"

"Is your name… Duke?"

"Depends on who's asking."

The crowd shouted again, inserting a pause in their conversation. 

"My name is Marshall Morrison. I think we went to Kindergarten together. Well, first and most of second grade as well. You're Duke Crocker, right?"

The intense staring was definitely into the creepy zone by now. "Yeah, sorry, but I don't remember you."

"We moved away just after Christmas in second grade."

"So what's brought you back to Haven, Marshall?" Duke crossed his arms and leaned against the back wall of the bar. Thinking about Christmas of second grade pissed him off, and Marshall still scrutinizing his every detail was beginning to make his skin crawl.

"I've always wondered if the things I remembered about Haven were true or not." Marshall's gaze made one more up and down sweep over Duke. "I guess some of it was real."

The server brought the burger out and set it in front of Marshall just then. He finally turned away from watching Duke and began eating. Duke shuddered, but went back to managing the drinks and tried to ignore the guy. Creepy he might be, but it wasn't his fault for bringing up those memories. Hell, it was the day after Christmas, those memories had been trying to surface for a week.

The Patriots were slaughtering the Bills, and the crowd kept getting rowdier. Marshall drifted off and joined in watching the game after he finished eating, and Duke breathed a little easier. It wasn't until one of the Bills, ironically also named Duke, shoved one of the Patriots in a clearly illegal move, that Duke realized just how much trouble Marshall Morrison was going to be.

Cheering for the wrong team? Bad enough. Cheering for the wrong team when they've just cost the right one a touchdown catch? The entire group of rowdy, drunk locals was on its feet looming over Marshall before the announcers had finished saying 'flag on the play'. Duke grabbed the bat and hoped this didn't end with too much shit broken. 

Marshall wasn't exactly helpful. He shoved the nearest man in the chest. "Back off! Fuck the Patriots!" 

It was futile, but Duke tried anyway as the first chair was kicked aside. "Hey! Knock it off!" He grabbed Marshall by the collar and yanked him back. He opened his mouth to say Marshall was leaving, but he picked up movement from the corner of his eye just in time to throw his arm up. The bottle hit his arm instead of his head. He was pretty sure he felt the bone snap. The bat dropped to the floor, Marshall swung at the nearest guy, and all hell broke loose.

Even though they should have all been on the same side against Marshall, in a matter of seconds it was a frenzy. A chair crashed over Duke's back, knocking him to the floor, someone stepped on him, lost their balance and fell, then started kicking him like it was his fault. He tried to stay low and back out far enough that he could call the cavalry. He almost made it when a big beefy hand hauled him up and he got just enough look at the face behind the fist to recognize John Coolidge before stars exploded in his vision and his back slammed into the bar. 

He slid down the front of the bar, trying to catch his breath. Marshall Morrison's face swam into focus in front of him. Marshall was offering him a hand up, so he took it.

 

 


	2. Chapter Two

 

 

### 

CHAPTER TWO

 

Audrey paused her movie. After dealing with a _The Nightmare Before Christmas_ Trouble for two days straight she deserved a quiet Sunday. Seriously. It was a football game, how could it possibly justify that much racket? Footsteps pounded up the stairs, and Audrey started putting on her shoes. A day without a Trouble. One. That was all she asked.

The pounding on her door a second later, followed by a panicked-sounding Veronica shouting, "Detective Parker! Audrey? There's a fight and something's wrong with Duke!" confirmed her suspicions. 

She grabbed her gun in it's holster and threw the door open. The blast of cold air was like a slap to the face. Veronica wasn't the most crisis hardy of Duke's waitresses, so her look of fear didn't give a lot of info. Her assurance that she had called 911 did help, though. Audrey stuffed the holster into place over the band of her pants, and drew the pistol before she made it to the door of the _Gull_. 

Inside, the fight was mostly over. Two men were leaning against each other trading body blows, several others were in various states of picking themselves up off the floor. Duke wasn't immediately visible. 

"Alright, break it up!" The men still swinging didn't seem to have heard her. They looked too punch drunk to hear much of anything. 

A couple of the more alert downed combatants dragged themselves up and pulled the two apart. Not one of them looked like they regretted having torn up the _Gull_ , but they had no problem with sitting their butts against the wall to wait for Haven PD to take them to the drunk tank. 

Duke was still no where in sight, and Audrey was starting to get very worried. Veronica nudged a phone against the back of Audrey's arm. She glanced back at Veronica.

"They want to talk to you."

It took a moment for Audrey to realize Veronica was still on the line with dispatch. She took the phone.

"Detective Parker?"

"Yes. I've got," she did a quick head count. "Eight for pick up." She looked over them again. "Better send a couple ambulances to check them over first."

"On their way. Owens and Miller, ETA of four minutes. I'm sending all other available units to join them."

"Thanks, Marge." The grumbling thought, _Even Laverne gets a day off,_ passed through Audrey's mind. She handed the phone back to Veronica. "Where is Duke?"

"He was behind the counter when I ran."

"Alright, you lot. I know your names. We will track you down if you get any bright ideas about sneaking off. Stay put!"

There was generalized shoulder shrugging, and Audrey took that as good enough for now. She holstered her weapon and edged around behind the counter. No sign of Duke. She kept an eye on the brawlers until she was at the door to the kitchen. None of them had shown any inclination to move, and Veronica looked poised to screech if any of them did, so Audrey ducked into the kitchen. A quick glance about the room failed to turn up Duke, so with another glance back at her brawlers, she moved on to having a quick look in the freezer, fridge, dry storage, and even the cleaning closet. 

She checked on the men in the main room again. Two had apparently fallen asleep. She hoped it was the booze and nothing more serious. "Hey. John! Harris! Wake up!"

The two startled awake with drunken remarks of surprise. Maybe Duke had ran out the front when Veronica had. Through the window, Audrey spied the slowly flashing lights of a patrol car pulling up outside, and sighed with relief. Owens and Miller hustled inside. 

"I have to check something. You two have these?" She jerked a thumb toward the men.

"Sure thing, Detective," Miller said.

Audrey pulled Veronica into the kitchen. "So what did Duke do that made you think something was wrong?"

"Well, he tried to break up the fight, but Michael Jones nearly took his head off with a bottle, and that out-of-towner swung at Harris and then it was just a mess. Duke ended up down by the bar. The out-of-towner offered him a hand up and Duke freaked out. Screamed like he was scared to death and sort of scrambled away back here."

Audrey got a rough description of the man likely responsible for this mess, then said, "Okay, well go back out there and wait, and thank you."

Veronica looked more nervous than ever now that Audrey hadn't laughed off her concern. Audrey sighed and reached for her phone. Her pocket was empty. Damn. The phone was on the side table by the couch. 

She leaned back into the main room and caught Miller's attention. "Radio dispatch. Have them get Chief Wuornos over here."

The man looked confused for a moment, since the cooperative brawlers were no reason to call the Chief in, but then the 'gas leak' light bulb flashed across his expression and he pulled the radio from his belt.

Duke had been scared enough to scream and run away from a fight tearing up the Grey Gull. So maybe a fear Trouble, which meant she needed to check things out a bit better. At least no one else seemed to be affected. Duke had been complaining for at least two weeks that if these guys didn't get the fight out of their systems somewhere else, they were going to end up trashing his bar, so the fighting didn't seem Trouble related. 

She started opening cabinets and shifting boxes on the open shelves. She found him in the dry storage room wedged in behind boxes of supplies on the bottom shelf. One eye was badly swollen, and blood from his nose had smeared over his face and clothes. He was trembling and when she pulled the biggest box from in front of him, he scooted backward and wedged himself into the corner.

He kept one arm pressed against his chest, but the other was up as if warding off blows from above. Something was niggling at the back of her mind. A memory from when she was twelve? Fourteen? She pushed it away. Now was not the time for a trip down memory lane.

"Duke?"

He pulled his knees up even tighter and sniffled. 

"Duke. It's okay. Whatever you're seeing isn't real, it's a Trouble."

He jerked at the word Trouble and the trembling grew more violent. 

Maybe her touching him would be enough to break him out of it? He kept glancing at her then jerking his face back to the protection of his knees. He lowered his arm and whimpered as she slowly reached for him. He sucked in a breath when she touched him and the trembling stopped. 

"Duke?" 

He didn't move. Barely breathed. Okay. Not so fixed, and memory was pushing into déjà vu territory, demanding she pay attention to it.

"Duke. Look at me."

Duke slowly tipped his head up enough to make eye contact. There was no recognition in his eyes, and it was clear to her that fear of what she might do if he refused was all that was keeping him in place. She shifted her weight and he flinched, his arm coming back up ready to block a blow. 

_Jimmy...._

She let go of his shoulder and moved back slowly, sitting in the doorway, just visible from Duke's corner. His face was pressed to his knees and the hitching breaths and shaking shoulders told her he was crying again. Jimmy had been so little and so beat up when he first got to the foster home. Every time it got loud, he'd hide, and he looked just like this when anyone found him. On what planet did Duke Crocker cry when scared--at least the adult Duke that she knew? A strong suspicion that this was a kid Trouble was forming in the back of her mind, and if that was right, pushing would only make things worse. She told herself that this reaction didn't _have_ to mean anything about Duke, that any kid injured in a bar fight might react the same way. 

It took a minute or so for his first glance around the room. He spotted her in the doorway and hid his face again. The glances got more and more bold until he was staring at her. His pupils were expanded, tremors ran through him, and tears still trailed down his face, but contact was made.

"My name is Audrey," she said.

He hid at the sound of her voice, but was soon looking at her again.

"I'm here to help. No one is going to hurt you anymore, Duke."

He looked hopeful for a second, but then his expression closed off, and he shook his head.

"Duke, do you remember what happened?"

He hugged his knees and cried harder, but nodded to her.

"You're safe now, Duke." He didn't respond, but at least he didn't deny it. Then again, she knew that sometimes not arguing with the adult was the only real choice. She tried a different tack. "Does your arm hurt?"

He nodded slightly. 

"And your nose?"

He nodded again.

"Anything else?"

He nodded.

"Can you show me?"

He darted glances around furtively, but finally nodded and uncurled enough to point at his ribs. 

"You need to see a doctor, Duke." He looked stricken at the thought, but she continued. "They'll make you feel better, and you can pick what color cast they put on your arm."

That thought seemed to interest him, and his posture relaxed a little more. "What's your favorite color, Duke?"

He leaned toward her and cupped his good hand around his mouth like he was telling her a secret. "Blue."

"Well then we'll ask for a blue cast. What do you say?" 

He shrugged one shoulder at her, playing it cool, but Audrey could see the interest in his eyes. A little caution entered, though, and he asked, "They can really be different colors?"

"Yep." _Early eighties. I have to remember that it's the early eighties to him. Definitely no cell phones._

He leaned to one side trying to see around her into the main room. "Is he gone?"

"They've been taken care of. No more fighting. Nothing to worry about now."

He nodded, but sniffled loudly. 

"Do you know where you are, Duke?"

His eyes widened, and he shook his head, retreating back into a huddle. 

"It's okay, Duke. You're safe now. This is a restaurant."

"I wanna go home."

"Come on, we have to take you to the doctor first. Okay? Then we'll sort out the rest." She held her hand out to him. 

He crossed the distance and swamped her in a one-armed hug. Nathan with his impeccable timing chose that moment to tread heavily into the quiet kitchen and say, "Parker!" 

Even Audrey had to admit that he sounded big and he sounded unhappy. Duke jerked back toward the corner, but she kept a tight grip around his shoulders and after a couple more tugs he gave up. "Duke. That's Nathan. He's not going to hurt you. He's a good guy. You understand?"

Duke nodded. His face was still pressed against her shoulder. Something had soaked through her shirt to skin, and if it was snot she was going to give him some serious payback when he was back to normal. She didn't even like real small children and all their secretions.

"Nathan. We're in here," she said as softly as she could and still be heard in the next room. 

Nathan picked up on her tone and softened his approach. She didn't know what he had expected to see, but Duke tearfully clinging to her like she was some kind of human teddy bear probably hadn't been on the list. He stood perfectly still for ten seconds before he finally said, "Parker?"

She gave him a 'wait' gesture. This was a Trouble that required some demonstration. "Duke? How old are you?"

Duke shook his head slightly. 

"This is Nathan. He's a good guy, remember? Just tell him how old you are."

A muffled, "Seven." 

"Seven?" Nathan hissed. "Parker, do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass he was at seven?" 

"I can imagine. But right now he's a seven year old who just got beat up in a bar fight. Pretty sure the arm is broken."

"Hell. Okay. Seven. I can do this." He pulled something out of his wallet and then squatted down near them. "Duke. I'm a police officer, and I'm here to help you."

"No, cops! Not s'posed to talk to cops!" Duke tried to pull away again, but Nathan put a hand on his shoulder, and he stopped moving. Duke finally had his head up, but the look he was giving Nathan wasn't one of recognition.

Nathan shot a look at Audrey that said, "See?" But his voice was gentle. "I'm not going to make you say anything, Duke, but we need to get your arm looked at."

At the reminder of his arm hurting, Duke stuck his lip out and tears spilled down his cheeks again. 

"Look, I have something that I only give very brave kids," he started to hold out the shiny plastic badge, then pulled it back. Audrey had seen him go through this routine with kids several times now, and it always struck her somewhere between adorable and sheer genius. "But I don't know… Do you think you're brave enough?"

Audrey could see the interest in the shiny, forbidden object warring with Duke's suspicion of cops. Finally, it was too much. He released Audrey and snatched the badge, turning it over and around, admiring the way it caught the light. Little boys were definitely related to magpies. 

"Okay, let's get up and I'll help you pin that to your shirt. Ready?"

Duke nodded and let Nathan pull him to his feet. He put on a brave face as Nathan pinned the badge to his shirt. A sniffle escaped when Nathan turned toward the door, and Audrey caught Duke dragging his sleeve across his nose. 

She looked at her shirt. _You're so going to owe me, Duke Crocker._

They managed to get Duke's winter gear on him with a minimum of fuss. He seemed to think having his broken arm zipped inside the coat was funny, but he balked when they got to the front room of the _Gull_ and the flashing lights of several cop cars and two ambulances played across a near three ring circus of cops, brawlers, and paramedics. 

Nathan nodded to her that he could handle this and Audrey ran back to her apartment to change her shirt and get her phone and coat. She glanced back at them from the deck. Nathan was holding onto Duke's good elbow and had his other arm protectively around Duke's shoulder guiding him through the crowded lot. She smiled. Nathan could be as gruff as he wanted on a normal day, days like this were enough to remind her of what lay underneath her guys' incessant bickering.

When she got back to the truck, Nathan had shut Duke inside, and was leaning heavily against the truck. He looked desperate. "I can't not see Duke. You're sure he's not faking?"

Audrey leaned to the side enough she could see Duke inside the cab. He appeared to be busily turning all the dials on the radio. She looked back at Nathan. "Pretty sure."

"I called Dwight. He's going to meet us at the hospital, make sure whoever sees Duke is understanding."

"Good. I can imagine how the conversation would go with a normal person. Spoiler alert. It doesn't end well." She leaned around Nathan again. "I think he's up to playing with the wipers now."

Nathan whipped around to see Duke spinning the windshield wiper controls back and forth. "Seven," he muttered shaking his head as he walked around to the driver's side. 

Duke jumped guiltily when Audrey rattled the door handle. He pulled away from her as she tapped the worst of the snow off her boots and climbed in. Then he nearly smashed her against the door leaning away from Nathan coming in the driver's door. It was becoming apparent that Duke didn't really grasp how big he was. He could walk, so his body must remember, but he didn't seem to recognize it consciously. 

She pushed him back into his seat as gently as she could. "You have to stay in _your_ seat, Duke. Here. Let me help you with your buckle."

Nathan helpfully handed her the strap. It was only a lap belt for the center seat, but keeping him pinned into his seat was better than nothing. Duke kept quiet for the first five minutes of the drive. Then he seemed to forget he wasn't supposed to be talking to cops.

"Do you think it'll be a _big_ cast? My friend Nathan broke his arm and he had a really big cast."

Audrey noticed the way Nathan's grip tightened on the steering wheel, but he didn't say anything. "I don't think it'll be one that big, Duke," she said.

"Do you think he's still at the hospital? Can we go see him? I'm not s'posed to talk to him anymore. My dad says--" He cut off and glanced around guiltily, then hunched down in the seat. He put his face in the crook of his arm, and Audrey heard renewed sniffles.

Audrey looked over at Nathan with a plea for help. His jaw was clenched, but he motioned comfort. Audrey sighed and wrapped an arm around Duke's shoulders. "You're going to be okay, Duke. We can't see your friend Nathan, because he isn't in the hospital anymore."

Duke didn't say anything else in the few minutes it took to get to the hospital, but the sniffling stopped, and he started playing with the plastic badge. Dwight was waiting by the entrance when they pulled into the lot. Audrey left Nathan to get Duke moving in the right direction while she checked in with Dwight.

"Seven?" he said by way of greeting.

"Yeah." 

Dwight's eyes had gone wide. "I'm not babysitting him. I'll look for your out-of-towner." Duke nearly stepped in front of a car easing through the parking lot. Nathan stopped him with a tug on the collar. Dwight winced. "I would have thought he'd be a little more streetwise than that."

"Me too," she shrugged, "but that fight really freaked him out."

Nathan and Duke made it to the entrance. Nathan had a tight grip on Duke's good arm, and some of the fear had been replaced with mulish pride.

Duke shook the hand off as soon as his foot touched the sidewalk. "I'm _not_ a baby!"

Nathan opened his mouth, probably to remind Duke he'd nearly walked in front of a car, but Dwight jumped in. "They've got a room set up. Found Lucassi still here and nurses that will understand the situation. Follow me."

Despite the refusal to let Nathan hold onto him outside, Duke sidled closer and cautiously gripped Nathan's hand as they walked through the door. Behind them, Audrey smiled.

 

 


	3. Chapter Three

 

 

### 

CHAPTER THREE

 

A nurse escorted them to a room. She cheerfully told Duke about her giant camera that could see his bones, and had him talked out of the coat and gloves before Audrey had even caught up. Keeping up the momentum, a second nurse arrived with a portable x-ray machine. Nathan and Audrey were ushered out into the hallway.

The muffled voices of the nurses carried through the closed door for a minute. A sharp cry from Duke startled her. The door of the room opened and the two nurses stepped out, pressed the button on the x-ray, and went back in. They left the door cracked open this time, and she heard them explaining that they had to turn his arm the other way to take one more picture, and praising him for being so brave.

She had to admit, they were amazing at treating him like he really was a seven year old. A second quick x-ray and they were leaving, saying he was definitely getting a cast. Duke was laying on his side clutching a teddy bear in a death grip. Fresh tears stained his face. She sat down beside the bed and swept Duke's hair back from his eyes. 

Nathan rummaged in the cabinet for minute before joining them. "Duke, I think your bear has a hurt arm, too. Let's make him a cast."

That sparked major interest and before Audrey knew what was happening, Nathan had gotten Duke's help in wrapping the bear's arm in a pretty convincing medical tape cast. By the time they had finished that, Duke was calmed down enough to quietly watch TV. Looking at him, it was easy to forget that he really did have the mind of a small child right now. Though the image of him huddled on the bed hugging a teddy bear was just priceless. Audrey reminded herself to snap a picture of that

Lucassi came in and poked and prodded, and asked a whole lot of questions. After the first few questions, Duke pulled his knees up and gave Lucassi dirty looks over the top of the bear, refusing to speak at all. Finally Lucassi gave up dealing directly with Duke and spoke to Nathan and Audrey instead. "I need to ask him orientation questions to help rule out head injury, but…" he motioned vaguely back at the table. 

"That may have to stand," Nathan said. 

Lucassi nodded irritably, "We need those clothes off him, too."

Audrey joined the doctor in staring at Nathan. He glanced between them and Duke. "Not happening."

* * *

"No!"

"We have to take your shirt off, Duke. I know it hurts to move your arm, but the doctor can't put on that blue cast you guys talked about, if we don't remove your shirt."

Neither one of them wanted to talk about the trip to the bathroom, beyond Nathan's terse, "We're getting him sweatpants before we leave," and changing into the gown hadn't been going smoothly at all.

"No." 

Audrey could hear the tears back in Duke's voice. Nathan had pulled the curtain around the bed, so she couldn't see them at the moment. It also meant they couldn't see her, so she had allowed the grin she'd been suppressing to spread. Oh, she knew it was wrong, Duke really did seem to be thinking like a little kid right now, but like Nathan had said earlier, she just couldn't _not_ see the adult Duke, and how he was going to react to this once he was back to normal.

"Look. Pull your left arm out of your sleeve. No! I mean your--" Nathan paused to take a deep breath. "The arm that doesn't hurt, Duke. We can do this, get you cleaned up--" 

Something crashed behind the curtain. Audrey yanked the curtain back to find Nathan and an IV pole on the floor on one side of the bed. He was already getting back to his feet. Duke had wedged into the narrow space between the bed and wall. His face had gone pale and his eyes were squeezed shut and he was repeating, "No, no, no," under his breath. 

Audrey started to move toward him, but Nathan stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Let me."

She had expected him to be angry, but his voice was surprisingly soft. She deferred and he sat leaning against the wall beside Duke. He just sat there for about a minute. Duke's litany ran down, but he still had an awful expression on his face. Nathan slowly reached out and put his hand on Duke's good shoulder, and drew him in until Duke was hugged up against Nathan's side. Duke accepted the grip without struggle and without the air of paralyzed fear he had had under Audrey's touch earlier, but he still wasn't relaxing into it.

Audrey sat back down. Whatever this was, it wasn't on a rushed time frame. The two sat there for several minutes until Duke let out a heavy breath and finally relaxed.

Nathan spoke with a lot more softness in his voice than Audrey thought she'd ever hear directed at Duke. "Hey. How're you feeling?"

"M'okay. Did you take my dad to jail?"

"He's not going to hurt you again, Duke." 

When had this stopped being about a bar fight? Audrey almost wished she could leave without disturbing them, it felt like intruding in the worst way, especially as Duke continued, chewing on his lip "But… I-I-I don't wanna go away. Let him out? Please?"

A muscle was twitching in Nathan's jaw. He closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath before he responded, "Duke, I can't take you back home."

"I should've stopped. I don't wanna go away."

Nathan brushed the hair away from Duke's forehead. "It wasn't your fault, Duke. It doesn't matter what you did, he shouldn't have hit you. I'll keep you safe." 

"But I didn't listen, and--"

"No. Duke, there is nothing you could do that make you deserve to be hurt like this. Nothing. No matter what you do, I will never hit a kid. You're safe now."

Duke pulled out of Nathan's grip and gave him a suspicious glare, but apparently found no chink in Nathan's sincerity. He slammed into Nathan's chest, crying again, but it sounded happier this time. 

The crying stopped and Duke stiffened. "Uh, Nathan? Care to fill me in on why I am half naked and crying into your chest?"

"If you're back to normal, get off of me," Nathan said, pushing Duke away.

Duke sat up on his knees, not leaning on Nathan, but their legs still pressed together. "Hold on a minute." He seemed to be running through his recent memories, because he kept glancing between Audrey and Nathan with growing horror. 

He covered his eyes with his uninjured hand. "There's no way you two will just forget about this, is there?"

Nathan hrmphed and worked his way to his feet, but he still offered Duke a hand up. Audrey stepped out into the hall to give grown-up Duke some space. She still heard him say, "You really meant that?"

Audrey peeked around the edge of the door in time to see Nathan nod.

Duke grabbed Nathan in a one-armed hug. Nathan flailed and didn't look happy about the position, but he didn't push Duke away. Duke's voice was suspiciously choked up as he said, "Thank you."

After several seconds, Duke stepped back out of the embrace, but kept one hand on the back of Nathan's head. The roguish smile plastered on his face almost guaranteed that whatever came out of his mouth next would negate the tender moment they had just had. "But the next time you undress me--"

Nathan smacked Duke's hand away with a snort of disgust. "You thought you were seven. That's disgusting."

Duke's grin became a self-satisfied smirk. "I was going to say be more careful of the zipper." The smirk disappeared and Duke carefully sat on the edge of the bed. "Seriously. That still hurts."

Nathan looked like he was nearing the end of his tolerance for the day. "Since when do you not wear underwear?"

Audrey covered her mouth to contain the giggle threatening to escape, and ducked back out into the hall. 

Lucassi came scurrying up the hall. "Detective Parker. Detective Parker!"

"What's wrong?"

"It's possible that this problem is not isolated to Mr. Crocker." The look on his face said _fascinating_ , even as his tone of voice said _serious medical problem_. "The symptoms are somewhat different, but it is a possibility."

Nathan left off arguing with Duke and joined them in the hall. "Where?"

"The other individual was brought in by ambulance from the Grey Gull after he began displaying unusual behavior. He's in room three on the ambulance corridor."

"Yeah, sure. I'll just wait here with my teddy bear for the good drugs. You go on ahead," Duke called from the room. 

Nathan rolled his eyes and said, "Duke's fine on his own now. Let's go."

They could have found the room by sound alone. A deep male voice bordering on hysterical assaulted the halls.

"We're under attack! Why are you just standing there? What the fuck happened to my uniform?"

"Who's in there?" Audrey asked, looking at Lucassi.

"Harris Turner. Age fifty-nine. A Vietnam veteran, but with no history of dissociative symptoms. Under normal circumstances I might diagnose delayed onset stress disorder, but in light of Mr. Crocker's condition…"

Nathan nodded and pushed the door open. He found himself face to face with a weathered and at the moment quite battered face. Harris stared at Nathan in shock for a few seconds before saying, "What the _fuck_ is a civilian doing here?"

"You need to stand down, soldier. You were evacuated stateside. The battle is over."

Harris looked around suspiciously. "I'm not hurt enough to have been evacuated."

Lucassi stepped up. "You had a head injury. It is remarkable that you are up and speaking."

Harris looked unsure. "Really?"

"Oh yes. You were unconscious for weeks, Corporal."

Harris sat down, clearly shaken.

Lucassi turned to face Audrey and Nathan and gave them a thumbs up. Facing Harris again, he said, "We need to assess the integrity of your memory. Now, what year is it?"

"1970."

"And your age?"

"Nineteen. The last date I remember was July 15th. I was stationed in Firebase Ripcord, and we were under heavy mortar attack."

Lucassi appeared to be in full researcher mode. Audrey stopped him with a hand on his arm. He excused himself from Harris and they stepped out into the hall. "You've got him under control. We're going to try to find the source of this." 

"The age discrepancy is fascinating. Seven years old versus nineteen. 1983 versus 1970. The loss of twenty seven years versus forty. Mr. Turner clearly reverted to a time of incredible stress. Was the same true of Mr. Crocker?"

Nathan answered. "Christmas break 1983 ended with similar injuries as the bar fight for Duke."

"Hmm. That would correspond with his x-ray results. Family member, I suppose, at that age."

Nathan looked uncomfortable, but didn't say anything. 

Audrey was definitely going to be asking about this later. For now, a warning to temper that gleam of excitement in Lucassi's eyes. "Just keep in mind that they seem to remember everything that happened once they snap out of it."

"I take it that Mr. Crocker is truly back to normal, then?"

"Yes." Audrey answered. 

"It could be based on unresolved trauma," Lucassi went on, undeterred from his earlier train of thought. "So addressing that trauma, at least in a preliminary fashion, might be the key to returning them to their normal state."

"It's a working theory," Nathan said sourly. "We'll let you get back to Harris, now."

Lucassi was already drifting back toward the room. "Hmm? Oh yes." He gave an absent nod in their direction, and went back to his interview. With his prior research on memory, it was no wonder that this case fascinated him, and here was someone old enough to talk more intelligently than a scared seven year old.

"I have spare clothes in the Bronco that'll fit Duke. I'll go get them and call Dwight. I want this ended before anything worse happens."

"Wait. What was all that between you and kid!Duke earlier?" Audrey didn't know a lot about Duke's childhood, and didn't particularly like the idea of intruding now, but this was relevant to the current case.

Nathan suddenly looked weary and sprawled into a nearby chair. "Remember the bully Trouble?" 

"Of course. The list. Didn't you frame that or something?" 

"No!" He looked guilty enough that she suspected he did have it stored securely somewhere, just not in a frame. He continued. "The first thing. The one that he left off the list."

"Yeah. He broke his arm punching you, right?" The story hadn't sat well with her when she first heard it, but Nathan and Duke had come to a fragile peace after that Trouble, so she hadn't pushed them on it.

"We talked about things afterward," he said carefully. 

"If by 'talked about' you mean the two of you got drunk and ended up dancing on the pier of the _Grey Gull_ , then yeah, I remember that." Audrey scolded herself, mentally. This was serious, but she still had the video on her phone and watched it whenever the two of them were annoying her with their sniping at one another, and the words jumped out unbidden.

"We talked! Wait. Why are you looking at your phone like that? You swore you deleted that video."

"Blackmail ammo like this? Never, permanently. Duke sent me a new copy of the copy I sent him."

Nathan made an exasperated noise. "This is serious. He punched me, because I couldn't feel it."

"Right."

"So no one would know that he didn't hit hard enough to break anything. His arm was broken before he got to school. He just had to find some excuse to get taken to the nurse."

The idea that seven year old Duke would put himself through that kind of pain to hide child abuse was like a bucket of ice water dumped over her head. "Why would he do that?" 

"Simon convinced Duke that if anyone found out Simon did it that he'd go to jail and Duke would be sent off to an orphanage and it would be much, much worse than being at home. Simon put a cast on over Christmas break, but took it back off before school."

"How could they ignore that it was older? Surely there were other bruises."

Nathan sighed. "It was 1984, Parker. People just didn't interfere in families back then. Not in Haven. The Troubles were in full-swing, Duke was Simon's kid--I don't know, Parker. They couldn't have missed everything with him, but…"

"Nobody ever did anything about it." Her eyes narrowed at the thought of Garland Wuornos and every other older citizen she knew in Haven ignoring a little boy being hurt.

"He told me he met Lucy after that. She took an interest in him. After that when Simon disappeared for days, Duke had a babysitter. There was food in his house. Simon never hurt him that badly again."

Audrey was staring at him, stuck somewhere near horror. She had known that Duke had known Lucy as a child. He had given her Lucy's locket, after all. She'd never really considered that him hanging on to that locket meant that an eight year old orphan had been able to keep up with that locket all those years, just how much it had to have meant to him. And 'never hurt him that badly again' strongly implied that while things improved, the abuse hadn't stopped. 

Nathan's phone ringing interrupted before Audrey could formulate a response. He stood up and answered the call. "Wuornos."

After a few seconds he said, "We'll be there in fifteen."

"It got worse?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah. Dwight found our guy at McHugh's bar. He tried to bring him in."

"What did he revert to?"

"McHugh wouldn't say. Just said to come pick up our suspect and that he was taking care of Dwight. I'll go get those clothes. Duke might be useful this time."

"I'll meet you back at his room."

When Audrey stepped into the room, Duke was sitting on the bed, one foot on the floor, the other tucked up on the bed. He had a clean white cast nearly up to his armpit. He was holding the teddy bear in the other hand, just staring at it like it somehow held answers.

"No blue cast?"

Duke startled and tossed the bear onto the bed. When he looked up, all traces of the expression she had just seen had been wiped away. He grinned at her, "Nah. I'm more of an Earth-tones kind of guy now." His grin faltered, and he said, "So I'm just going to go out on a limb and assume that Nathan told you about this." He waved his casted arm at her.

"Yeah."

He sighed. "Yeah. So my dad was an asshole. Not a big shock there, considering who he hung out with."

Audrey nodded slightly. Simon had been killed because he was a danger to the Troubled. Out of control. Couldn't be reasoned with, according to Garland, so him bringing that home and seven year old Duke getting caught in the cross-fire wasn't shocking.

Duke was watching her expression closely. "Without Marshall Morrison's Trouble forcing me to re-live it, that happened a long time ago. It wasn't important yesterday and it won't be important tomorrow, right?"

Audrey wanted to talk about it. It was her nature to help people fix things, but this wasn't the sort of thing that could be fixed quickly, if ever. She didn't doubt that there were aspects of Duke's approach to the world that might make more sense now, but he was right. This had been a part of him as long as she knew him, so there was no reason to change how she treated him.

Duke looked over her shoulder at Nathan who had just arrived. "Yeah, I know. I know. Today it is relevant. Did someone find Marshall? I owe that little prick a punch or two. I should be immune now, right?"

Audrey shrugged. "Maybe. It could just send you to some other time in your life that was traumatic."

That took the wind out of his sails. "Yeah, I think I'll sit this one out, if you don't mind."

Nathan marched past Audrey and pulled the curtain around the bed. "I do mind. This is spreading. Harris Turner and Dwight for sure. Who knows who else. You're getting clean clothes on and coming with us. Right now you know a lot more about this guy than we do."

"Marshall Morrison, you said, Duke?" Audrey asked. 

"Yeah. Said he went to lower elementary with us. Moved Christmas break of second grade."

"Right in the middle of the last Troubles."

"Yeah. Hey! I can take my own pants off, thank you very much!"

"Just getting the button. Tell me you could have done it quickly one-handed."

"That's not the point!"

Audrey sighed and left them to it. She called Dave and asked if they could find anything about the Morrison family during the last Troubles. Dave promised to call her back as soon as they had checked their archives.

The curtain pulled back and she saw that they had gotten Duke fully dressed. He looked strange in Nathan's clothes. Not that they didn't fit. The two of them were near enough to the same size, but Nathan's dapper dress style, even untucked and rumpled from being in the back of Nathan's truck, looked utterly foreign on Duke. Still...it was a look she could definitely appreciate.

"Let's get moving. We need to isolate this Morrison character before anyone else is affected."

Duke nodded grimly.

 

 


	4. Chapter Four

 

 

### 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

When they entered the bar, it looked almost as bad as _The Grey Gull_ had after the bar fight. A woman was pushing broken glass and pieces of furniture into a pile in the middle of the room. "About time!" When they hesitated, she said, "So get your asses back there, already."

Duke gave an uncomfortable shrug, and Nathan patted him on the shoulder before threading his way through the mess to the door the woman had indicated. Duke had been quieter than normal, as if a certain vulnerability she had seen when he was mentally seven years old had lingered, and Nathan was still responding to it. She decided that having known the two of them this long, it wasn't cynical of her to wonder how long this dynamic would last. 

Duke hadn't complained about coming with them beyond his one 'I'll sit this one out' comment, but she noted that he hadn't moved any closer to the door Nathan was approaching either. "Come on, Duke."

"Right behind you."

Audrey rolled her eyes, but did hear him following her through the mess. Nathan opened the door into the back room. The sound of broken sobbing hit them. Stepping inside, the trail of destruction continued in here, but wasn't quite as bad. A blond guy nearly as big as Dwight that Audrey assumed was McHugh looked up from the corner. The look in his eyes spoke of the imminent demise of one Marshall Morrison. He was holding Dwight in an embrace that looked like it was as much about controlling the big man as it was comforting him. 

Dwight's whole being screamed unimaginable, helpless grief. Audrey didn't know what time of his life Dwight had been mentally sent to, but Marshall Morrison had a lot to answer for for forcing him to relive anything that could reduce another human being to this state. 

"Your guy is over there." McHugh nodded toward a hallway at the back of the room. "Get him out of here and fix this. You don't have long before before this flips back to homicidal, and I don't know if I'm enough to stop him again."

"McHugh, It may be possible to trigger him back to normal," Nathan said. He looked doubtfully at Dwight. "It's a long-shot."

"How?"

"Beginning to address the trauma."

McHugh blinked at them like they were particularly stupid. "Get your Troubled guy out of my bar, and address him. There are some things you just learn to live with."

Nathan nodded tightly and marched over to the hall. "Parker!"

Audrey ran up to join him, and found a broken zip tie and no sign of Marshall. "He's gone."

Dwight lunged, nearly breaking loose from McHugh's grasp. "Dammit! So go find him!" McHugh shouted.

"Let me go! I'll kill them!" roared Dwight.

Nathan was already out the door looking for a trail. Audrey looked back for Duke. He was frozen in the doorway staring at Dwight. She gripped his arm, and said, "We can't help him here."

Duke shook his head slightly, and let her pull him outside. There was a smear of blood on a car, and another at the corner of the building. There hadn't been any cars parked on the street when they arrived. 

Nathan stalked back over to them. "Duke, do you know what he was driving?"

"No." Duke kept glancing back at the door they had just left. 

"He's in the wind again."

Audrey tapped Duke on the shoulder, and he dragged his attention back to the lot. "What else did he talk about, Duke?" she asked. She shivered. It was too cold to stick around out here. It was well past dark now, with a cloudless sky, and the temperature was plummeting. 

"He stared at me. A lot. Told me he knew me with what sounded like the worst pick-up line ever. Then said he moved over Christmas break in second grade." He watched a car with exhausted looking parents and bouncy kids waving new toys in the back seat roll past them. "There's not much traffic, maybe we'll see him driving?" He moved toward the Bronco, and Audrey followed suit. 

"I'll be right back," Nathan said. He jogged back inside.

Duke climbed into the Bronco. Audrey decided to go out onto the street, just to be sure that Marshall wasn't currently walking down it. It was deserted, but there had been enough traffic that she couldn't use the snow to track which way Marshall had turned. She went back to the Bronco. 

With no one watching him, Duke had slouched against the door looking worn out. When she opened the door, he jerked upright. "Any sign of Haven's most irritating?" The forced enthusiasm didn't even begin to fool her. She saw that register in his expression, and he lapsed back into a silent slouch.

"No." She took the middle seat this time.

Nathan slid into the driver's seat and started the engine. "Lauren says these vehicles belong to her, Dwight, and McHugh. She didn't see what Morrison was driving either."

"He seems set on bars so far. We could try the _Shiny Scupper_." Audrey wasn't sure how many bars there were in Haven, though she knew Nathan could tell her, but the _Shiny Scupper_ was nearby, so it was a good enough place to start. 

Nathan nodded and pulled out onto the street. They drove somewhat slowly, looking up and down the side streets, but between the cold and the holidays the streets were nearly completely empty. Duke was still quiet, not even voicing the bravado he had shown earlier. Audrey wondered if they'd be dealing with similar lingering reactions from everyone affected. She believed McHugh could handle Dwight. They could handle Duke, but they'd have to make sure Harris had someone. If she recalled correctly he wasn't married, and had no close family.

They didn't see anyone else on the street after the family that passed them earlier turned off toward a residential area. Several vehicles were parked near the entrance of the Scupper. "At least somebody is here," Audrey said. 

"I'll go," Duke said. "I know what he looks like. If I spot him, I'll send you a text." 

Audrey looked at him sharply. "That's a bit of a change. You sure?" 

"Yeah." He stepped out of the Bronco and took a step away. He turned back and said, "Dwight."

He was only gone a couple of minutes. "He's not in there. They haven't seen him."

"Where to next?" Audrey and Duke both looked toward Nathan.

"He didn't say anything about why he came back to Haven?" Nathan asked.

Duke thought for a minute. He slowly shook his head, then said, "Wait! He said he wanted to see if what he remembered about Haven was true."

Nathan let a noise of frustration. "That's not exactly helpful by itself." 

"It's not like I knew he was going to start scrambling people's brains!"

Audrey touched both of their hands. "His family moved at Christmas. What does Haven do every year at Christmas?"

"The Christmas Market." Nathan nodded. "Large gathering of people. Stressful time of year. Something could have happened that scared them into leaving."

"Think it was worse than this year's?" Duke asked.

Audrey shuddered. All those evil Halloween themed Christmas toys…. She shuddered again for good measure.

Nathan pulled away from the _Scupper_. The Christmas Market was at the commons. The gazebo was the centerpiece and often featured local musicians on the weekends. At least the market had already closed, but it wasn't late enough, as it turned out. Not all the workers at the shops had cleared out before Marshall's arrival. They found the first one crying in her car. She didn't seem imminently homicidal or suicidal, so they left her. 

After the third panicked or devastated person they came across, Audrey thought to call Lucassi and Claire to set up containment and mental health triage. The Market covered the entire park with tightly packed stalls, each of which was full of merchandise with storage in the back. Some of them had already been closed down, with fronts boarded and locked up. Others were still wide open. They decided to do a quick sweep and if they didn't find Marshall then they would begin again with a more in-depth search.

They were one line of booths away from the open square around the gazebo when Nathan suddenly tripped over his own feet. He rolled over and stared at his hands. Duke had dropped further and further behind with each affected person they ran across, and was several feet behind them. Nathan poked himself in the chest, then sat up and started touching everything in sight, his expression getting bleaker by the second. Duke started to move to help, but Audrey waved him back. There was definitely an area of effect now, and she didn't want both of them incapacitated. Nathan was making clumsy attempts to get back up. 

Audrey hesitated to help. "Nathan." He didn't seem to have seen or heard her. She wasn't sure if he had registered that he wasn't on the _Cape Rouge_ , and she didn't know what it would take to break through. 

Duke was shifting foot to foot and generally looking more agitated the longer it took Nathan to figure out how to stand up. He took a step forward, but made himself stop. "Nathan. Just take it slow. Your body knows how to do this. Stop thinking so hard and let it work."

"Duke! What did you do to me?" Nathan's voice held anger, but there was a note of rising panic as well.

"Nothing! Just, I know this weird and all, but if you come over here, I can explain."

Nathan finally worked his way to his feet. "I can't feel anything." His voice rose in pitch, "Nothing, Duke! How could you explain that?" 

"It's a long story, really."

Audrey nearly facepalmed. Did Duke sit and practice lines designed to make Nathan suspicious? She groaned in frustration. He probably did.

Nathan looked down at his hands. "I can't-- Without feeling how can I--?" He lunged in Duke's direction with a howl. If he managed to coordinate himself well enough to actually catch Duke then this could be really bad. They must be very close to Marshall, and helping him would help Nathan, so she swallowed hard and turned her back on them.

"I'm not going to fight you, Nathan. I messed up. I won't make it worse."

"Won't fight? _Won't fight_? What have we been doing for the last hour then?"

"Yeah, we fought. That whole day was a giant fuck up, and I'm not adding to it."

"Wait. You messed up? So you admit this is your fault? You're the reason I'll never--" Nathan choked on whatever he was going to say next. 

Audrey heard running behind her. She wanted to go back, but instead she stepped around the corner into the open square. Marshall was on his knees in the snow by the gazebo, staring up at it with a broken expression on his face.

Audrey heard a crash and Duke shouting, "Nathan! Stop! You're going to hurt yourself." 

"Marshall."

The man jerked at the sound of his name. Audrey spied the butt of a gun in the snow on the ground in front of him. "Wh-who are you?"

"I'm Audrey. I'm here to help, Marshall."

Marshall shook his head so hard he nearly fell to his side. "You a cop? Who else would bother to know my name?"

"I can't _feel_ anything and it's because of you!" Nathan roared. There was another big crash and Duke yelped. 

"Duke told me your name." She tried to block out the sounds of fighting. She stepped closer to Marshall.

He looked over his shoulder at her. "Yeah. Duke. Look, tell him I'm sorry about his bar getting torn up like that. I have cash in my bag in the rental. You can cover the damages with it." He turned back to staring at the gazebo. "Is that all?"

"I didn't _mean_ for this to happen! I never meant for this to happen to you, Nathan." 

"Stop running and let's end this." The emotion Audrey had heard in Nathan's voice earlier had been completely covered by anger now.

Still, she breathed a little easier. It sounded like Duke had gotten some distance between them again. She had almost inched her way close enough to Marshall to kick the gun away. "Have you noticed anything a little _strange_ today, Marshall?"

He laughed, though there was no humor in it at all. "This is what this town does, isn't it? Bizarre things happen. People-people-people…" His shoulders shook and he lunged for the gun. Audrey wasn't quite in range to kick the gun away, so she did the next best thing and kicked Marshall away from it. She had retrieved the gun, removed the magazine and chambered bullet, and was putting them all into her coat pockets before he pulled himself back up.

"Why?" he wailed. "Why stop me?"

"I can't let you kill yourself, Marshall. But I can--"

There was another crash and Duke tumbled into the square. His whole demeanor changed. He propped himself up on his good elbow, looking around wildly. Blood dribbled from his nose again. He'd lost his coat, which had only been on over one arm with the cast. Audrey couldn't put her finger on it, but like earlier, she had an instinct that Duke was much younger right now. 

Nathan slammed into the stall door frame he had just thrown Duke through. Audrey manhandled Marshall to the post of the gazebo. Duke's eyes had gone wide and his feet scrabbled for purchase in the snow, as uncoordinated in his panic as newly Troubled Nathan had been. Nathan got free of the store inventory debris around the door frame and ran for Duke. Audrey cuffed Marshall with his arms around a gazebo post then also ran for Duke. Nathan got there first, piling onto Duke to be better able to pound him in the face.

Duke shrieked. The unnatural sound ended with a shuddery sob. Nathan froze with one arm pulled back ready to throw a punch that Duke would still be feeling next week. 

Duke whispered, "Please. Don't." Then turned his face as far away as he could, but otherwise remained painfully still.

Nathan rolled off Duke, and clutched his arm. "Duke? Duke, what's wrong?"

A strangled sound escaped Duke, but he stayed cemented to the spot. 

"Nathan."

He looked around wildly and finally registered her presence. Audrey approached warily. If he was still trapped in the memory, he wouldn't know her. 

"Nathan." She was careful not to touch him. No need to add to his confusion.

"Who are you? How'd you get on this boat?"

"I'm Audrey, Nathan. I know this is confusing, but I'm here to help. You need to let go of Duke and give him some space now."

"Something changed. This isn't Duke." He looked back at Duke. "I mean it is, but this? This isn't him." He slowly took in the brightly colored trinkets, tinsel, and lights. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Have you heard of the Troubles?" 

Nathan shook his head. "Stories. Those aren't real. Something is wrong with him. We have to call an ambulance."

"You were on Duke's boat. He was using you for cover. The two of you fought. Right?"

"How could you know that?"

"Because that happened over three years ago. Look. I'm going to get something out of my coat, and I want you to look at it." She reached into her pocket and pulled her badge out. 

She handed it to Nathan, who finally released Duke's arm. Duke didn't give any overt sign, but Audrey was ready when he tried to escape. The casted arm and bruised ribs from earlier slowed him down enough that she easily caught his hand. He struggled and pulled. She caught Nathan in the corner of her vision looking distraught.

"Let me go!"

"I can't do that, Duke. It's too cold to let you go hide." 

He continued to struggle, though like the first time it was not as effective as it should have been given their respective sizes. It was like his mind was holding him to the expectations appropriate to whatever age he thought he was. Nathan lurched to his feet behind them, and Duke huddled in on himself, all the fight disappearing. 

Nathan's expression turned grim at that. He waved at Duke with Audrey's badge. "How am I supposed to believe that this is real? That this isn't another trick." Nathan nodded toward Duke, although his eyes didn't carry the scorn that his voice held. He handed her badge back. "That could be faked. How do I know you aren't the cause?"

"You already know this isn't Duke. Come on, Nathan."

Marshall was staring at them. Listening.

He nodded jerkily. "That doesn't clear you." 

"Nathan. This Trouble takes people back to traumas, so I know that as far as you are concerned, this is one of the worst days of your life...Duke's betrayal, losing the ability to feel... but I need your help to fix this."

Nathan wavered between anger and desire to grasp at some explanation for what he was seeing. Before he could decide, her phone rang. It was Vince and Dave. Maybe she could gain his trust through them--he'd known them his whole life. She answered and put it on speaker. 

"Audrey? We found the records on the Morrison family."

"Vince?" Nathan said credulously. 

"Yes, Nathan?"

"What year is it and who is this Audrey?"

"Oh dear. He's been affected as well?" 

"And Duke again."

"Oh my. It is 2010, Nathan. Audrey is your partner at Haven PD."

Nathan stumbled back and fell to the snowy ground. He tried to pull his wallet out, but numb fingers fumbled and failed to get a grip on it.

Audrey plowed on with the conversation. The faster she could figure out Marshall, the faster she could get both of her guys back to normal. "The Morrisons, Vince?"

"Yes. The last Morrisons living in Haven were Rachel and Terence along with their three children, Marshall, Alexa, and Edward. It's not good news, I'm afraid. Obituaries for Rachel, Terence, and Edward ran December 22nd, 1983, along with an article about a freak lightning strike at the gazebo during the Christmas Market."

Marshall yanked on the post trying to get closer. His face was red, and he snarled, "Lies! That's not what happened!"

Dave jumped in. "It was Harry Plinkett's Trouble. He went nuclear right there. Six dead. Had to be taken out with a rifle. Lucy couldn't get near him for the radiation and there were kids--" Dave broke off, clearing his throat.

"I'm guessing Marshall and Alexa."

Nathan had given up on his wallet, and was looking more and more bewildered, glancing between her, Duke, and Marshall. 

"Yes. Audrey. We also found an obituary for Alexa Morrison in the Chicago Tribune." 

Marshall collapsed into abject misery.

Audrey saw Duke edging away, and grabbed his hand again. It worried her that he instantly and silently cooperated. "Cancer and recent?"

"Right."

"Thanks, Vince and Dave."

Her legs were going numb from the cold. She wasn't sure she'd be able to talk Marshall down before they all got frostbite. She definitely didn't have time to calm Duke down enough to talk, and she knew he'd run away if she turned her back for too long. Hadn't he once said that when he was a kid he'd a lot of 'castles' and they all had great hiding places? It had seemed a weird thing to say at the time, but it was making a lot more sense now. While he had probably taken into account the weather back then, a lot of time had passed and nothing would be the same. No, she had to deal with him while talking to Marshall.

Nathan was potentially a wildcard. He was still looking stunned. It had taken him years to accept the Troubles when this had really happened, but he had already shown he was able to snap out of the rage of that awful moment to rational and adult thought patterns, so he had the most potential to be useful. She'd start there. "Nathan?"

"The Troubles are real." His tone didn't quite make it a question. More of a plea to tell him none of this was real. A bad dream he could wake up from.

She nodded, feeling guilty for not having the time to give him the full measure of compassion that he needed right then.

"And this guy," he nodded toward Marshall, "is mentally de-aging people?"

"Right."

"Me." The muscles in his jaw clenched. "Duke. Why not you?"

"I'm something different." She pulled her glove off with her teeth, and dropped it in the snow. "Take off your glove, and hold out your hand."

He looked doubtful, but he did slowly reach out to her. She grasped his hand firmly. 

"Cold!" He looked at her in amazement. "I feel you. Everything else is a blank, but I feel you." He looked behind her at Duke. There was residual anger in his expression, but he said, "We have to fix this. How many others are affected?"

"I'm not sure. Two in other locations, and at least five, but probably more, here. It's getting worse. In the beginning he had to touch, now it's got at least a thirty foot radius."

"So what do we do?"

"Try to pull his focus back to the present. If that doesn't work--and quickly, it's freezing out here--then we find a place isolated enough that he can't affect anyone else until we can get him calmed back down."

"What about Duke?"

She bit her lip. There just wasn't time for this. She turned to face Duke. He was still sitting hunched in on himself, staring dully at the ground in front of his feet. She patted him on the shoulder. He shuddered but didn't look at her. 

"Duke? We aren't going to hurt you. We're here to help, but we can't--we have to help that man over there first." He would remember this later, so she continued, "I will be there for you later if you ever want to talk about this. Or even if you don't want to talk, but don't want to be alone. I'll be there." 

She didn't get any response from Duke, and she wondered if he was biding his time, or he'd gone into shutdown. When he didn't react to Nathan moving closer, she decided it was shutdown. She sighed, but still warned Nathan, "Don't take your eyes off him. He'll run."

Duke's eyes cut around at her before falling back to the ground. So he was listening, she thought, but he kept silent and compliant as Nathan hauled him up and moved him to a bench under the gazebo. Marshall had been watching them with wide eyes. 

"You're trying to tell me that I caused this? That I did _that_? And, and that big guy earlier? How could that have been me? The guy just went berserk!" He turned his stare toward Duke.

"Yeah," she said gently. "And not just them."

Marshall leaned his forehead against the cold post. "I didn't want to hurt anyone," he mumbled.

"Except yourself?"

Marshall huffed out a breath and it seemed to pull his vitality with it. "Alexa is gone." Pulling the collar of his shirt aside, he tapped on an IV port embedded in his chest. "I have no reason to keep fighting." He turned that unnerving stare back up at the roof of the gazebo again. "I was right there." He pointed at the place Audrey had found him.

"When your family died."

He nodded miserably. "All but Alexa. And she's gone. She's gone." His shoulders shook. 

"You didn't come back to Haven to kill yourself, did you Marshall?"

"I was sitting here with a gun, wasn't I?" he snapped.

"You were starting fights in bars, earlier, looking for your past."

He laughed bitterly. "I found it, didn't I? All those horrible things I remembered. Our Aunt told us they weren't real. Never happened. All those trips to the hospital, treatments, needles, feeling like crap, and all that time they told us this--Haven--never happened. Now here I am and look!" He threw his hands up in Duke and Nathan's direction. "I remember them, you know. When we were kids. It was fun, before-- And then, then, _Haven_ happened."

He flopped against the post, breathing heavily. "I didn't want to hurt anyone," he said softly. "I don't know if you can hear me, Duke, but I'm sorry. And you, Nathan." 

"Marshall Morrison?" Nathan said. "I remember you now."

Marshall puffed up a little at that. "I spent the night at your house once before you broke your arm."

"That's right. I never knew what happened to you."

Audrey gave Nathan a smile. Marshall seemed a little calmer, more connected, so she pressed ahead. 

"You were right, you know." That sparked his interest. "Haven did happen. Those things you remember _were_ real. This effect you're having on people? We call them Troubles. It wasn't a freak accident that killed your parents and brother. There was a person with a Trouble." 

"No. I am not the same as that monster!"

"No, you're not. No one has died yet. No other little boy has watched his family die yet. You have the power to save them."

"What power?" he croaked. "I didn't have the power to stop any of my family from dying. Why do I get to live while they all died? Why did Alexa have to get something incurable?"

"Marshall. You can't change the past, but you can influence the future. You can stop this."

"How?"

She nodded toward Duke, shivering on a bench. Nathan wrapped his coat around Duke, which earned him renewed crying. Nathan stepped back with a confused expression, and hovered between the conversation and Duke. "They are trapped in the past. You've got to let go." At the sign of impending protest, she quickly added, "A little." She tapped his chest. "Do you have a future, Marshall?" She hoped with all her might she hadn't misread his earlier lament.

"I don't want it. I don't _want_ to go on alone." He looked up at Audrey with purpose in his eyes. "Let me kill myself. End this."

Nathan cried out and fell to his knees clutching his head. Duke slumped over on the bench, moaning, one arm waving as if he was fending off something Audrey couldn't see. Marshall stared at them, open-mouthed. 

"Nathan!" Audrey leapt to his side. "What's happening?"

"Bad memories," he gasped out. "Won't. Stop." He was sweating, eyes clenched shut against whatever he was seeing. He yelled and fell to his side. "Nightmares! When I was a kid." 

"I-I-I-How did that happen?" Marshall stammered.

"Your Trouble. As long as they are affected, the worse you feel, the worse they get. You don't want a future, and you're taking them with you!"

"I don't want anyone else to die!"

Nathan pushed himself up, still cringing every couple of seconds from whatever he was seeing. His slow, shaky progress as he lurched over to them captivated Marshall's attention, and Audrey noticed that, in turn, the intervals between Nathan wincing increased. He landed beside them hard enough to give Audrey a sympathy pang in her knees, even though she knew Nathan couldn't feel it. 

He placed a hand on Marshall's shoulder with exaggerated caution. "Marshall. Stay in Haven. We know about these things--these strange, sometimes awful things that you've been looking for all this time. We don't have all the answers, but we're asking the same questions. You won't be alone."

Audrey had known that Nathan could exhibit single-minded stubbornness, but she was grateful, at least this once, for his fierce will. . She had to keep up her part of this and not waste his efforts. "We help the Troubled. It's what we do."

Marshall looked back and forth between the two of them. Finally, his shoulders slumped, defeated. Nathan sagged nearly onto Marshall with relief before he caught himself. 

Marshall said, "I'm not going to kill myself if it means taking you with me, Nathan. You were right, Audrey. I didn't come here planning to kill myself."

Audrey heard snow crunching, and cursed to herself. A look behind Nathan confirmed it. "Duke's gone!"

"Dammit!" Nathan darted off without a second thought, following the footprints in the snow.

Marshall watched Nathan disappear between the stalls. "He-Duke-what happened to him?"

"You mean whenever he's at right now?"

Marshall nodded. 

She stared after Nathan, wishing she could go after the both of them. Nathan was at least still an adult, but newly Troubled, he was in a lot more danger out here in the cold than she liked. Duke… Maybe it was something he and Nathan had already talked about, and Nathan could have helped again if he had been in his normal frame of reference, but what she _was_ sure of was that Duke would hold her to her promise to not push him on it. She couldn't keep the bitterness of not being able to help out of her voice as she at last said, "I don't know."

Marshall sighed. "Look, if I promise to not try to kill myself, will you let me go after them with you?"

Audrey smiled to encourage him. The more focused he got on the present and people in their current form, the more likely it would be that his Trouble would subside. She unlocked one handcuff, then snapped it around her own wrist. "Now you can help."

He got up slowly, looking rather ill. 

"You okay?"

"If we take it slow. It's the chemo. Cure is worse than the disease right now."

"What do you have?"

"This time? Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It's treatable. Curable even, most of the time. I get to live."

They slowly trudged down the hill following Nathan and Duke's footprints. "Do you work, Marshall?"

He nodded. "I'm a civil engineer."

"You build bridges?"

He snorted. "That's what everyone says. I've never worked on a bridge. I'm working on a restoration of an old clock tower right now. Most of my projects are restorations, repairing structural integrity of damaged buildings. That sort of thing."

"Well Marshall, you'll never be out of work if you stay in Haven."

"Bad things happen even to the buildings?"

"Like you wouldn't believe."

The trail ended at the back door of another shop. Audrey held her finger to her lips then pointed at the door. Marshall nodded and they quietly crept up to the stall. She hoped that the improvement in Marshall's mood meant that people would already be freed, and they'd find Duke and Nathan back to normal.

She pushed the door open. The lights were on inside and a space heater was blowing. Nathan sat with his legs out in front of him, idly jabbing a pencil against his thigh over and over. Duke was on the other side of the tiny interior huddled into Nathan's coat, glaring suspiciously at them all. 

Marshall said, "When I was at the _Grey Gull_ , I saw a jetty with caution tape and no lighthouse. Are they going to fix that?"

Nathan jerked, then threw the pencil down. He said, "They're looking for an engineer that won't question the need to earthquake proof a lighthouse in Maine."

"It looks like I'm your guy then. I'd believe the need for anything in this town."

"Nathan? You're back?"

He nodded. "Duke? You back with us?"

The wide eyes and huddled posture hadn't changed, so Audrey figured that was a no. "Try touch. The first time was touch activated."

Marshall held his hand out and slowly approached Duke. "Okay, just don't come up swinging, alright?" 

Duke closed his eyes as Marshall reached for him. He jumped when Marshall made skin contact. With a deep breath, he opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. "You still want to beat the shit out me, Nathan?"

Nathan shrugged. "Not today. Maybe after the cast is off."

"Okay, then." He stood up, tugged Nathan's coat off, and held it out to him. "Marshall. It's been _incredibly_ awful meeting you again. I'm going home." He pushed past them toward the door.

Nathan grabbed his shoulder. "Duke, wait."

Duke threw the hand off as he spun to face Nathan, his expression almost panicked. "Don't touch me." 

Nathan took a step back. Duke sighed. "Sorry. Just not today." He spun again and was out the door before any of them could say anything. He paused a few feet away and called over his shoulder, "You should check on Dwight." Then he continued down the hill. 

Nathan made to follow, but Audrey stopped him with a hand on his chest. "I think we should give him a few hours, at least. And he's right about Dwight. Marshall, did you touch anyone else?"

Marshall looked more shaken after Duke's reaction, but said, "I punched someone at Duke's bar."

"Harris," Nathan said. 

"The next place I went was the place where that big guy found me. That Dwight?"

"Yeah, and if he's still affected then we better get to him quickly, but we should check that the people here have been released first." 

Nathan eyed the shared handcuffs, and said, "I'll go on ahead, see who I can find. Claire and Lucassi might be here already, too."

Several minutes later, Audrey and Marshall had made it to the parking lot. Half a dozen subdued people were clustered around Nathan and Lucassi, who was telling them all about an accidental chemical release that caused hallucinations. He concluded by informing them that they needed to go to the hospital for overnight observation to make sure there were no lingering effects. 

"I thought you people helped the Troubled. Why are you covering it up?"

"Not everyone in town knows about us, and we try to stay under the radar. We don't want to have some government agency showing up to examine us."

"So we're still hiding. Pretending Haven doesn't happen."

"There is a community here for the Troubled. It's not perfect, no, but there are people here who understand, and can help. We meant it when we said that you wouldn't be alone in Haven." Audrey released Marshall from the handcuff, and let him collect his bag from his rental car.

Nathan worked his way out of the crowd and followed them to the Bronco. After they were all sitting inside the truck he said, "Lucassi talked Harris around, so we're good there, but Dwight's still affected. Claire's there."

They didn't see a single other car on their drive. Marshall began to fidget and cleared his throat several times as they neared the bar. "Do, uh, do you think it's safe?"

"Dwight's not going to destroy things when he's in his right mind," Nathan said.

"He's actually the guy who fixes things, normally."

Marshall gulped. "So, like a general contractor then? The favorite one in town, it sounds like?"

"Eh… You could say he's the general contractor for the Troubles," Audrey said carefully.

Marshall put his face in his hands and groaned. "I'm going to be working with someone that I made that angry." He looked back up, and waved off Audrey's next reassurance. "No, no. I can handle it." He smiled wanly as they pulled into the parking lot. "I-- It's just not a good introduction, is it? Let's fix this." 

He slid out of the truck and marched ahead of Audrey and Nathan. When they got inside, other than some missing furniture, there was no indication that the place had been destroyed earlier. "Through that door. Up the stairs," Lauren said curtly. The look she gave Marshall said he should be very glad that he had a police escort.

Upstairs, they found a small studio apartment. McHugh glowered at them tiredly from a stool in the kitchenette. He had a darkening bruise on one side of his face, and blood spotted a rag he held to his nose. Claire sat on a footstool near the bed holding Dwight's hand. Dwight was stretched out on the bed. His movements were weak and uncoordinated, and his words slurred. It couldn't completely erase the pain in his expression and voice as he begged, "Take me instead. Please, take me instead."

Marshall paled so much that Audrey wrapped her arm around him in case he fainted, but he squared his shoulders and marched over to the bed alone. Dwight recoiled from Marshall's touch, then blinked sluggishly at his surroundings.

"He should remember everything that happened since he was affected," Audrey said. She wanted out of here. She didn't know who Dwight had lost. He had never spoken about his past at all, beyond his vague mention once that his Trouble had been triggered in Afghanistan, and seeing his private pain felt like even more of a violation than witnessing Duke's. 

Claire explained that she had sedated him, earlier, but it should wear off in a few hours. She left a bottle of pills on the table beside the bed, and said she would be back in the morning and he better still be here. He nodded slowly. Marshall was still standing near the bed, staring at Dwight.

McHugh said, "He'll be here," and took Claire's place on the footstool. She pulled Marshall with her and the four of them went back down the stairs. 

"So who else have we got?' she asked. 

"Lucassi took six from the Christmas Market to the hospital, all past the effects," Audrey said. She saw that Marshall was pulling in on himself, and they definitely didn't need to let that happen right now. "This is Marshall Morrison."

"It's nice to meet you, Marshall. I'm Claire. I help Troubled people process things." She gave him an assessing look. "It looks like you're about to pass out for the night."

He nodded. 

"Well, I have to go do a round at the hospital. I could set you up in the doctor's lounge for the night. It has some very nice beds, and I'll be there in case you need anything. What do you say?" It was a question, but her tone wasn't asking. 

"I guess that's fair, considering. Better than a seventy-two hour hold, for sure. But what about tomorrow?"

"I'll pick you up. Give you a tour, help you with arrangements," Nathan said.

Marshall smiled at him again. "Thank you." He frowned. "You and Duke aren't going to be alone, are you?"

Claire looked at Nathan sharply. 

"Don't worry. I'm going to find him."

" _We're_ going," Audrey amended.

"No one that was affected should be alone tonight. _Especially_ people that refuse to admit their need for emotional help."

Nathan held up his hands in a show of surrender. "I get it already." 

She turned on her wide, innocent eyes look. "Did I mention your name?"

Nathan huffed and retreated out the door. Audrey winked at Claire. "I'll keep an eye on them both," she said before following him.

 

 


	5. Chapter Five

 

 

### CHAPTER FIVE

 

Duke's Land Rover was the only vehicle in the lot as Nathan pulled the Bronco into a space at the marina. Before Audrey could open the door, he caught her hand. She looked at him quizzically, probably wondering why since they both had gloves on, and he couldn't feel her touch.

"Thank you."

She frowned. "But I couldn't help you like you did Duke."

"You helped. I thought my life was over when I realized I couldn't feel, that I wouldn't be able to be a cop or even take care of myself. Then you were there telling me it had been three years and you were my partner on the force. You were so confident that I could still contribute. I knew that there was hope, that I wasn't going to be worthless the rest of my life."

"You could never be worthless to me, Nathan." She slid her hand out of the glove and put it on his cheek. "Never."

He gasped at her touch. She slid across the seat and drew him into a kiss, setting off fireworks in his dead nervous system. It was a quite chaste kiss in the scale of things. He didn't have the presence of mind to work at kissing her back. She was opening the driver's side door and tugging on his arm before he had recovered enough presence of mind to whisper, "Wow."

She smiled so big her dimples showed. She shivered and pressed against his side. He obligingly put an arm around her shoulders, checking to be sure that his hand was on her arm. Nathan had to remind himself as he walked to the _Cape Rouge_ that now was not a good time to look like he was on cloud nine. 

It had been a hell of a day, emotionally, and he'd only been affected once. He didn't know where Duke had gone the second time, but remembering the way Duke had looked at him spoke unpleasant volumes. There were years after Simon's death that Duke had never talked about, not even when he had gotten drunk enough to talk about the heists he and Evi had pulled before he returned to Haven with no care that Nathan was still a cop. 

That Nathan had been drunk enough to not even be able to pull his cuffs out at the time might have encouraged Duke, but still it wasn't something he'd ever have thought Duke would share. He'd even talked about the incident that had sent him running back home 'with his tail between his legs' as he put it, but even that drunk Duke had clammed up when asked about his living arrangements after Simon died.

Nathan had built up a sense of dread by the time he knocked on the hatch. He looked at Audrey, and saw the feeling reflected when the knocking got no response. He banged on the hatch. "Duke! Open the door. It's Nathan."

A second later the hatch swung open. "Seriously? You have the patience of a toddler, Nate." He was wearing a fluffy "Island of Misfit Toys" themed pajama set with a shirt loose enough that he had gotten the sleeve over the cast. "You just going to stand there? You're letting in the cold." 

Nathan shook his head, and stepped inside. 

He smelled popcorn. "I see you found the ring and your schwartz is as big as mine--" brought his attention to the living room area. _Spaceballs_ was playing on Duke's TV. This was not at all what he had expected. 

Duke paused the movie. He ran a hand through his hair. "So here's the deal. No, I do not want to talk about it. Ever. But I do have all of Mel Brooks' movies and several other comedies. I know I could use a laugh after today, and I have plenty of popcorn if you'd like to laugh with me."

Nathan took a handful of popcorn. "As long as the pajamas aren't compulsory."

"Are you kidding? For a sleepover on my boat? You've got a choice of Frosty the Snowman or a Charlie Brown Christmas."

"Duke… Just one question," Audrey said from near the TV.

Duke sighed. "Yeah, what's that?"

She held up two new sets of pajamas, one her size with Frosty the Snowman and the other Nathan's size with Charlie Brown. "What were you going to say if I chose Charlie Brown?"

He raised an eyebrow suggestively, "Hey, I wouldn't say no to seeing that." With a theatrical shudder, he added, "You've already seen me in his clothes today."

 

 


End file.
